With newfound strength and rejuvenating healing, the Shadow Prophets fight off the monsters in the cavern and prepare for introductions. While introductions are happening, Calliope catches Stabby trying to go through her stuff, and stabs her spare scimitar into his chest, humorously telling him that he can keep it. After Stabby receives a few jolts of lightning for good measure, the group proceeds into the A’Halon-11 Astral Plane vessel.
Aboard, the group locates the body of an old Jruskan head-chronomage, and find that he slowly descended into madness the longer he spent in the red mist. An alarm is going of faintly in the chamber ahead and some flashing red lights indicate intruders, so the group locates a nearby terminal. The language on it is not one anyone had seen, but Dreamer is able to cast a translation on it to discover that the ship was from the planet Eretsu. Its last destination prior to crashing into Mount Dunrar was Eschato, the homeworld of the Ashavaran parasites. They discover that there were multiple specimens, and that one of them was trapped in an amber prison onboard. The Ashavaran controls their minds, forcing them to release him, but stating that he is different from the rest of his kind and ignores the “Original Purpose.” He introduces himself as Consume-Alter-Integrate-Nullify, or Cain for short. He seeks release, and subsequent ingestion, for reasons unknown to the group.
After pocketing the amber that contains Cain, the group pushes ahead into the command deck, where they engage with the ancient vampire, Nil, and her parasite Anum, as well as the theatrical mage, Slate. The fight is intense, with corruption infecting the party at varying degrees of severity. Stabby hits the ground, the life draining from his body before the group can come to his aid. With that as the lone casualty, the others in the group are victorious, but not without a price.
Before they even have the chance to take in their victory, the A’Halon-11 finalizes its take-off sequence, blasting them into orbit.